Baird, Wilhelmina
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Scottish author Joyce Carstairs Hutchinson (1935- ), who began publishing sf with "Mantrap" for New Worlds in June 1961, writing this and other early work as by Kathleen James; she soon became inactive in the field, however, returning only as Wilhelmina Baird with the Cass sequence of novels set in a noirish Cyberpunk-like Near Future England, and comprising CrashCourse (1993), ClipJoint (1994) and PsyKosis (1995). Her heroine – whose name refracts both Cassandra and Case, the protagonist of William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) – lives as a thief in a culture divided into Aris, Arts, Techs and Umps (the great majority, who are permanently unemployed); but soon becomes involved in "feeliefilms" and after getting rich is prepared, in the sequels, to adventure off-Earth. The language throughout is alert, savvy in the expected noir fashion, and funny. A fourth novel, Chaos Comes Again (1996), uses the Space Opera arena to stage a succession of casually connected romps through Alternate History on the part of an interstellar agent chasing her lover and villains with the aid of a ship that talks, naggingly. Baird now lives in France. [JC]
Joyce Carstairs Hutchinson
born Dunfermline, Fife: 16 February 1935
works
series
Cass
- CrashCourse (New York: Ace Books, 1993) [Cass: hb/Bruce Jensen]
- ClipJoint (New York: Ace Books, 1994) [Cass: pb/Bruce Jensen]
- PsyKosis (New York: Ace Books, 1995) [Cass: pb/Bruce Jensen]
individual titles
- Chaos Comes Again (New York: Ace Books, 1996) [pb/Bruce Jensen]
links
- Cyberspace & Critical Theory: Wilhelmina Baird
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry